Panny 25mm 1.4 vs Olympus 25mm 1.8 Reviewed

Honestly, people are making too much out of this comparison. Robin Wong admitted his testing methodology was in no way rigorous, and further I suspect his hand is forced in making pro-Olympus statements (one funny line that struck out at me was his claim that all Olympus primes were tack-sharp corner to corner when shot wide open... Not remotely true for any of the wide primes).

Now we know the Oly 25mm is a good lens, and also that it has some rather different rendering qualities from the Leica... Honestly I don't think the price difference is so large that one would not buy one or the other just for a preference in size and rendering, rather than for 'value'. These lenses are so similar and at once very different. The Oly has that harsh, in-your-face microcontrast of all telephoto Zuikos. The Leica has a gentler rendering, and one I happen to prefer. I don't care if the T-stop difference is 2/3 EV or 1/3 EV.